Justice played politics in hiring

Justice played politics in hiring

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials illegally used "political or ideological" factors in elite recruiting programs in recent years, tapping law-school graduates with conservative credentials over more qualified candidates with liberal-sounding résumés, an internal report found Tuesday.

The report, prepared by the Justice Department's own inspector general and its ethics office, tells how senior department screeners weeded out candidates for career positions whom they considered "leftists," using Internet search engines to look for incriminating information or evidence of possible liberal bias.

seattletimes.nwsource.com

[edit on 6/25/2008 by JacKatMtn]

This is an interesting piece on the Justice Department using political leanings as a basis to qualify candidates to the department.

An internal affairs investigation has uncovered many instances where candidates were not hired or accepted into government programs because of liberal leanings.


More reports are expected as the investigation continues.

(Of course!! I expect a full blown media blitz on this as we close in on the November elections.)

Is this a surprise? Not at all, it seems these jaw-dropping revelations always happen close to an election.

And now our (US) government wants to take control of oil refining? our healthcare?

No thanks, Clean up your house first, please.

How does one stop the potential abuse.

Personal judgment is called for in screening applicants. How can one be certain that ideologically-based exclusionary tactics aren't present in every office led by political appointees?

Perhaps certain positions shouldn't be filled with 'political' appointees. Or perhaps some kind of real-time oversight needs to be imposed upon those who can undermine the tone and spirit of an agency by flooding it with it's own politically acceptable employees.

This seems to be an issue that will resurface again and again.

reply to post by Maxmars


I don't think ONE can..

It is revolving door of corruption that has been cultivated and nurtured for decades.

The outrageous evidence surfaces as a tool for elections, sure some underlings are sacrificed to appease the public, but in the end it doesn't stop the madness.

The cry about the need to fund education, "teacher/class ratio, teachers' underpaid etc. etc." are the same talking points I have heard my entire voting life (since the 80's).

The other evening I was listening to radio classics, a station on Sirius which rebroadcasts the radio shows from the 40s & 50s, complete with some commercial ads of the era.

Well in one of the shows there was an ad on an upcoming election in the mid 40s and the topic was education.

What were the talking points? You guessed it!!

The same ones that are still being tossed out now during an election year.

Our grandparents heard this, so did our parents, now us and our children.

When someone chimes in that the American voting public is gullible,

I would have to agree, we need a change,

not the change that Obama wants to sell,

A real change, a viable third party, one for the citizens and not the corporations.

Why can't the masses drop the left/right and gather together for each other?

If we can crack that nut, the boys/girls in DC will get nervous, so far all is going as they have planned, just take a gander at the current threads on the McCain / Obama contest.

Have you had enough of this?

I have.